Niger Delta: Finally, FG Fulfills Vow To Clean Up Ogoniland

Post by Chiamaka Okoh

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The Federal government will finally kick-off of the Ogoni clean-up programme as contained in the United Nations Environment Programme Report, UNEP, June 2 . The Minister of Environment, Mrs. Amina Muhammed, disclosed this yesterday in Port Harcourt during a visit to Governor Nyeson Wike of Rivers State.

Mrs. Amina Muhammed who was represented by Minister of State for Environment, Ibrahim Usman, said the visit was to seek the collaboration of all stakeholders in the exercise. She added that “The programme is expected to be launched on June 2 and has been designed to be driven by all stakeholders in the region. The essence of this is to ensure that the people of Ogoni and the region at large benefited from the process.”

While speaking in Nairobi, Kenya in January during a visit to the United Nations Office, President Muhammadu Buhari had promised his administration’s commitment to implementing the United Nations Environmental Programme’s recommendations for the clean-up of Ogoniland and other parts of Niger Delta which has been damaged by oil spillage.

The President had said that cleaning up Ogoniland was one of the first tasks he authorized when he assumed office in May, 2015.

“When I came into office on 29th May 2015, one of the first tasks I carried out was to authorize the implementation of the recommendations of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) for the clean-up of Ogoniland.”

He hopes this will help the people of the region trust the government again as many of them have lost faith in the government and resorted to criminal activities due to the devastation that the oil spillage has caused.

“The devastation caused by oil spillage has destroyed many lives and livelihoods and is clearly one of the reasons why many people in that region lost faith in government and resorted to the many criminal activities we are seeing in the region today. The action our government took to implement UNEP’s recommendations has given the indigenes of the region hope that there are better days ahead.”